Why do people charge so much?

This is subjective. This question is the same as : Why do people PAY so much?

If people are not willing to pay for that price, it's not going to sell, so the fact that they can keep selling at that price, is because someone out there think is worth it. Just check out Yahoo Japan auction (many very good examples there). XD

 

Cosign that. It teaches you a LOT to try making your own doll clothes, and will just about always give you a better appreciation of the amount of work in the clothes you've bought from others. I think more people would relax about the cost of something like a pintucked shirt or a lined fitted waistcoat if they'd ever tried making one.

 

Pretty much yeah, i mean i still have my limits what i would pay but we all have those. But i did gain a new insight to how much work goes into them.

 

Post #308 says it all about costs. Buttons are outrageous and there just aren't that many 1/4" or less available here domestically. (Trying to find some affordable, spiffy ones for a 1730's pirate outfit at present. About 15 for the waistcoat, maybe 24 for the coat. Urk!) At most fabric stores, the smallest you will find are 3/8", which I think are too big for anything but SD coats. I use scrap booking buttons a lot as well as scrap booking eyelets, because they're smaller than what fabric stores sell, but the scrap booking buttons are all one style for the most part and they get boring after a while. I also scour eBay looking for vintage buttons. They're often smaller and very unique, but they do usually cost more. If the buttons for your OOAK Victorian suit cost me $!5.00 to acquire, you better believe that will be factored into the price! I also check out doll house and miniature companies. I would love to find a source for tiny rivets for jeans, belts and shoes and a source for tiny metal buttons instead of plated plastic ones. Asian doll clothes makers have a leg-up on domestic ones in that regard-they have access to more of these tiny parts. You can go on alibaba and try to find a supplier, but you're talking having to buy thousands of pieces, which isn't feasible for most custom seamstresses. It's an ongoing quest to find the notions you need to make your items really stand out.

Fabric itself is usually not the majority of the cost of a garment as opposed to the notions. But I don't buy fabric (except on vary rare ocassions) unless it's on sale for at least 30% off. Love those 40% off one regular item coupons! Thread for me is what is truly getting annoying. The price just keeps going up and up and the spools get smaller and smaller. You have to pay about $6.00 any more to get a big spool that will last for more than one doll garment. I'm enough of a fossil that I remember when you could buy the standard large size spool of thread and it would make an outfit for an adult human with some left over. Now I'm lucky to get two pairs of dolly jeans out of one it seems! And they only sell the big spools in a few specific colors. If you have to pay $3.00 to get the right shade of thread for the doll outfit, then that also has to be factored in to your selling cost. Properly matching thread is essential in a quality garment. I use up a lot of thread because I overlock or zig zag all my exposed seams. A serger would be more economical in that regard, but it's really only good for long straight seams, which you don't have a lot of in your average doll garment. Most sergers don't make a narrow enough serge to work on anything under SD size and serging thread costs about $6.00-$8.00 a cone anymore and mine is a 4-thread serger. So you'd invest quite a bit of money in getting enough thread for your serger to be useful, even if you can make many garments out of one set of cones.

I'd say I've got at least $5000 invested in trim, fabric and notions in my current stash. That's not counting the cost of my sewing machine, its accessories or the dolls I'm patterning off of. So even if I do become successful as a seamstress, it will be a long time before I realize anything resembling a true profit.

 

If I was good at sewing, which I hope getting a larger doll will help me become, I would want to charge a fair price for the effort of labor I put into it. I don't mind spending more on my doll clothing because of the detail and effort it takes to make the items. I know how hard it is to make small outfits, and sewing pants for an adult would probably be a lot easier!

 

I guess quality deserves a high price! Well, i also bought cheap things......clothes, shoes and dolls......and i was not pleased with qualitiy! So i think its eveyones own choice which produkt someone buys! You can not be angry if you buy cheap things and they are lowest quality! My Akando has cloths which are more expensive then some clothes i own ^^ but it´s worth it!!!

 

Personally I just spent about 6 hours yesterday making a skirt. It's a cool skirt and looks extremely nice but the thing is, not even allowing for materials used, even if I were to only make $5 per hour it would cost someone $30 which most people would find expensive for a skirt and for the work that went into it I'm not interested in making that little.

I completely understand why people charge so much, in fact generally I find most BJD clothes to be very reasonable. However, I could never dress my doll the way I want if I had to buy them so that's why I make them

 

I'm guessing it's because sometimes this what people do for a living, plus as other people have probably said it takes a long time to make such small clothes. It's unfortunate that there can't be more affordable good-looking clothes because some people (like me) cannot afford the expensive clothes for dolls.

 

As an artist, I can tell you that much time and work went into learning how to do what I do and a lot of time and work goes into every piece I make, too. An artist, may they make clothes, do faceups, etc, has a very developed sense of space, they know exactly where something should go to make it look aesthetically appealing, and they have worked very hard to aquire this skill. Not many people have it, as you can see not many people draw or paint or sew, etc. I mean, there are a lot, but not in comparison with the rest of the population. So, by law of supply and demand, there is little supply and much demand, making their works expensive, and not only are they charging you for the time and work they put into it, but the time and work it took them to master their trade. Since these works are done by hand, they are often better quality then those that are massed produced by large companies.

I have always tried to keep my stuff on the less expensive side, though. It's not that it's not good enough, people are usually thrilled when I make something for them, I just usually feel like it's not good enough. I'm just one of those people.

 

What everyone here says. Also, while people sometimes think about the time you spent to develop your skills generally, they don't always know how much trial and error is involved in each new project. No matter how advanced your technique, each custom job has its own challenges. My last sewing job involved creating no less than eight different prototypes! And each one involves purchasing additional materials.

 

I am glad I stumbled onto this thread for I was wondering a similar question. Of course, it makes more sense now thanks to all of the replies I've read. Fitted clothing is difficult to begin with but make it TINY and forget about it!!
I suppose the only issue for me specifically would be that I do not even spend that much on a single item of clothing for myself let alone one for my doll. >m< My girl and I shall have to take turns on who gets new clothing every now and then.

 

This. I pay about $200 an outfit for my dolls. I am also one who likes some nice, $30-$50 eyes. I don't do it just for fun, I really think it helps with a doll's overall appearance. Does everyone think this is necessary? Of course not. It's what I'll pay. Some people will pay more, some people will pay less. It's all up to the buyer, as Izam said. ^^ And if someone has something really "overpriced", no one will buy it, so the price will be lowered or it just simply won't sell.

 

Yeah, I prefer quality to quantity, but you have to pay for it. I think it is better to have 1 amazing well done outfit, than 5 cheap.

 

Considering the size and how hard and how much precision it takes to make the clothing, the price is quite reasonable. Not only do you have to take in consideration the size of the clothing, you have to choose materials that dont look too stiff on the doll.

So, if you buy ready made doll clothing, you pay for the design, pattern, fabric selection, sewing and decoration of the product.
And custom made or "one of a kind" clothing has a higher price tag just because it is one of a kind. Even tailors save up patterns to re-use when a customer with similar figure orders something. And if it's a one of a kind item, they cant do that.

 

The price will reflect the "commission". For clothing, the complication of the piece and the cloth used will add to the cost. For a face up the complication of the work as well as the time and any extra customization will add to the cost. Custom work takes time out of someones day who doesn't use the money as their primary source.

 

I've been wondering this for a long time, now as lovely work as the people do I can't understand why they charge so much.
I've seen clothes for BJDs go for twice as much price for clothes I buy. And same with esthetics, I've seen a lot of different prices and I don't know what is a GOOD price...
Is it because the person is talented and really good at what they do?

Prices are set using a variety of factors:
Cost of Materials-- If you had to pay a lot for the stuff to make your dolls, or the material for the outfit, or the paints and tools you use for a faceup you can't charge less that the cost of the stuff you use or you will be losing money and might as well quit the business of selling because it is hurting your finances! If you buy an item at a certain price and wish to re-sell it, you will also want to try and get as much money back as you can, otherwise you're also losing money. Sometimes you have to sell and lose money, but that's not something that is good for the seller.

Cost of Time-- If you are spending time making a doll, you will need to be making sure that the prices you charge will cover that, too, otherwise you won't be able to eat or pay rent and you will have to stop making dolls and do something else for a living. This goes for people making outfits and re-selling items, even (if you are spending time that you could be doing something that makes more money, then you might as well not do that).

Overhead-- If you have extra costs involved--like maintaining a store to sell your dolls, or renting a warehouse or buying equiptment... all this needs to be covered by the price of your dolls.

Cost of Living-- If you live in Japan or the US where living is more expensive, we need to charge more than places like China.

Mass production versus specialty or unique items--If you are selling t-shirts made in China and sold at Walmart and made by the millions for a couple of cents each, your prices will be super-low because you are making your money back at all levels by low overhead and paying low wages and by producing and selling in bulk. If you only buy your materials in small amounts and make small amounts of dolls (and anything in the hundreds counts, compared to thousands or millions of t-shirts or jeans or Barbies that are made by big companies), everything costs more. (Prices are less when buying in bulk and producing in bulk and selling in bulk).

The Market-- Prices are determined mostly by what people will pay. If no one buys your doll/clothes/faceup service at a certain price, then you can't stay in business. But if you have the price set to make enough money to stay in business and people pay the price, then that's the price! It may seem like too much for many other people to pay, but if enough people are buying, then they can make it as a business.

Talent, etc.-- It's not exactly talent, but could be. It's whatever it is that appeals enough so that people want to pay the price for it. It could be popularity. Or a certain kind of style or look. Whatever. If you have an item or skill that people want to pay for, then you can ask as high a price as people wish to pay. This is related to Market Value. Not all things are the same. You should try not to judge Talent or Quality by how popular or desired a thing is... because they don't necessarily correlate. Basically, it is just what some people want to buy... a LOT... and may be willing to pay a lot for...

 

What I don't get through me is the price people charge for event items such as free wigs and free heads and things. You got them for free, so isn't any value you make from selling them a profit ? I understand putting a price on it since it is an item that you wouldn't otherwise get, but still ... to charge over $100+ for something you got for free, aren't we here to support the community as well as ourselves? Bit of a rant, but that's how I feel right now.

 

I disagree with you here. You cannot judge people for charging because if they DO give it away for free or a lower than asking price their "friendly" buyer might turn around and sell it for more. I have had this happen in another hobby and I learned my lesson. Figure out what an item is worth to the public and ask for that price. If no one bites than your price is too high. No one owes free item giveaways and low prices to anyone on the forum.

With that said there are a lot of people that I KNOW that I would happily give something away for free. But with the random DOA collector I would put my own interests first and ask a fair price for a hard to get item. Remember we all have other pretty things we would like to add to our collections and getting a good price on an item helps us get our grail items.

If a collector is willing to pay an asking price on an item than it is worth it...at least to someone out there.

 

Personally, I'd sell whatever it is for the going price on their website for a similar item, or market value if it is an older or more highly limited item -- but that's not particularly relevant since I tend not to get event items (that I plan to part with).

We support the community by posting, sharing information, sharing pictures, sharing how-tos... there are plenty of ways people share with the community. Handing out goods is something some people are in a position to do, and able to do, and more power to them! They are fairly rare. However, expecting this as a community standard from everyone, or as a default, is a very bad idea.

What Isenn said holds true, too -- on all counts. You'll likely see a lot more 'charity begins at home' among in-person or long-term friends than amongst relative strangers on the internet.

 

I just set my limits, I know what is too much and what is not, I buy clothes that are good in quality or is rare/hard to find even though they are quite expensive, but most of the item I only by cheaper but does not compromise the quality and my taste.
If I can't afford something yet, I try to do it by myself decent enough, I suppose... ^^ (i.e. face-up, sewing, etc.)